Review | Find Your Voice movie review: Andy Lau plays a choirmaster in banal education drama by Little Big Master filmmaker Adrian Kwan Shun-fai
- Canto-pop superstar Andy Lau plays a famous conductor who comes out of hiding to become a choirmaster for a special music project involving problem students
- While Little Big Master derived much of its success from its wonderful cast, Find Your Voice pales in comparison – and also suffers from lazy screenwriting
2.5/5 stars
Canto-pop superstar Lau plays the sole leading role of Yim, a famous conductor who has gone into hiding after suffering an unspecified professional setback in the United States. Encouraged by an old principal (Lowell Lo Kwun-ting) to move back to Hong Kong and become choirmaster for a special music project involving problem students, Yim reluctantly obliges.
What follows in this story, scripted by Kwan – at one time Hong Kong’s top director of faith-based movies – and his regular co-screenwriter Cheung Pui-king, is cliché-ridden: a triumph against the odds that any writer could dream up in his sleep. Yim is tasked with guiding a motley crew of misfits with no discernible music talent and get them into shape for an interschool singing contest in nine months.
While Little Big Master derived much of its success from its wonderful ensemble cast, Find Your Voice pales in comparison – and, to be fair, the young actors here are not helped by Kwan’s decision to cover as many stereotypes as feasible in the character settings.